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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 7413228" data-attributes="member: 82106">There are no 'literal terms' that mean anything because this is a construct of the imagination. Its the construct itself which is held to have value. If you want to make it concrete, then we can talk about mental activity, which obviously has a concrete physical basis, but I'm not entirely sure where that analysis can go...There's very little similarity between 'playing in a world' and 'reading a novel'. Playing in a world means depicting the actions of a character or characters, as constrained by the parameters of this artificial constructed world. The parameters are EMBODIED IN the Game Master, literally. This is the THEORY anyway. Now, lest you think I may have suddenly changed sides in this debate, I find that the theory, and the hypothetical practice, don't actually live up to and exist in real play at real tables, for MANY reasons.1) No two people actually agree on the content of the mental construct, the setting. They may may manage to agree on some details, but other areas, probably MAJOR ones that would have real implications, are simply imagined in different ways.2) The world cannot possibly be imagined in enough detail, even with an army of 100 GMs working for 50 years, to be able to make any sort of realistic prediction about 'what would happen in situation X'. Thus it is ALWAYS the GM's whim/judgment, constrained only by informal understanding that the players are only willing to accept certain things.3) The GM has a need to move the game forward, and the players have a desire for that as well, in general. So the GM will never be a really neutral arbiter. 4) The GM has a vested interest in producing something that isn't boring or frustrating to the players, meaning again he's not a neutral arbiter.There are other things, I could go on for a long time. GMs are like 'ring masters', they orchestrate. The idea that GMs are 'referees' is prevalent but nonsense.</blockquote>

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